Immigration Minister Scott Morrison hit back after the regional
representative for UN refugee agency UNHCR said that Australia’s policy
of sending asylum seekers to third countries for lengthy detention might
violate its treaty obligations.
“I’m not surprised. They have always opposed our turn back policy,
but I will tell you what Australia’s national shame was when it comes to
this issue: almost 1,200 people dead at sea,” Morrison said in an
interview with Sky News.
“That’s the national shame. That’s the regional shame,” he said,
referring to the number of asylum seekers believed to have died at sea
in recent years attempting the perilous crossing.
He was responding to remarks by James Lynch, the UNHCR’s regional
representative for Southeast Asia, whom the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation quoted criticizing the policy during a meeting in Indonesia
this week.
Australia uses offshore detention centers to process would-be
refugees trying to reach the country, often in unsafe boats after paying
people smugglers in Indonesia.
Since coming to power last year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has
instituted a policy of turning asylum seeker boats around at sea and
sending them back to Indonesia.
“There are obligations as a signatory to the 1951 Convention and the
1967 protocol, which say: if you intercept in your territorial waters,
you should allow those in need of protection to have access to the
asylum system,” UNHCR’s Lynch said.
Canberra’s tough stance on asylum seekers has been criticized by the United Nations and other groups as illegal and inhumane.
The policy has come under fresh scrutiny after footage released this
week by Fairfax Media appeared to show local guards at the detention
center on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea savagely beating detainees a
day before a riot there in February left one asylum seeker dead and more
than 60 injured.
Australia is investigating the role in the riot of the staff hired in
Papua New Guinea for Britain’s G4S, the world’s biggest security group,
which was responsible for security at the facility.
But Morrison dismissed calls from opposition politicians to release
more information about the riot and said that any evidence should be
handed over to authorities conducting the investigation.
“I want to get to the bottom of this. I want to make sure I know exactly what has happened,” he said.
Sumber : JakartaGlobe
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